


Forest Heart

by christ_Just_Let_Me_Say_Fuck



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Changelings, F/M, Fairies, Forests, Magic, fairy tale AU, that sort of thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-05-21 22:43:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14924256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/christ_Just_Let_Me_Say_Fuck/pseuds/christ_Just_Let_Me_Say_Fuck
Summary: Scavenging in the depths of an ancient forest, an orphan comes across something out of old folk tales.For Rey, one encounter with a magical being will change everything...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright. So.  
> First fic. Something about fairy tales.  
> Yeah? Yeah, that ought to do it.

  
By the time dawn broke, Rey had been scavenging in the forest for almost two hours. Getting an early start could mean the difference between survival and starvation, and Rey was good at surviving. And so she tramped out in the dark day after day, wielding her quarterstaff and her battered lantern, out into the depths of the forest where she earned her keep.

The village of Jakku was where she slept, but the forest was where Rey truly lived. It was the forest that provided the treasures she sought, the place where she laid snares and set woven baskets across streams to trap fish. Even now in the almost-darkness, deep in the pine-crowded belly of the forest, Rey was sure-footed and at ease. Other scavengers and hunters would only just be waking up about now, she thought with a twinge of satisfaction, while her pack was already bulging with fresh game, carefully wrapped mushrooms, chunks of scrap metal and odds and ends that Plutt might be able to flog for a couple of pennies. She had the forest all to herself.

Of course, even with no human to be seen for miles, there were always animal eyes watching in the forest, and Rey kept half an ear open for the bark of a vixen or the telltale rustle of weasels in the undergrowth. Her quarterstaff, slung over her shoulder, would be defence enough against a lone predator, but it was always better to be safe than sorry when you were out on your own.

Some of the older scavengers would have told her that there were worse things than wolves or cave bears out here, creatures far wiser and older – and more dangerous. Picking her way through the undergrowth, Rey’s hand came up to clasp the smooth chunk of resin that hung from a twine loop around her neck. It was a simple charm, something she had made as a child to ward off the kobolds and nixies and trolls that had haunted the forest in her mind. She was older now, and the forest was no longer a place of fear, but somehow she could never bring herself to throw the trinket away. It was one of the few things in her life that was unambiguously hers. She would have to give up everything she had in her pack if she wanted to eat, even the fascinating bits and pieces she had found half-buried under the silty mud on the riverbanks; a handful of tarnished bronze coins, a carved bone pin, some shards of glazed pottery and a fat glass bead, as bright and yellow as the midday sun. They had been almost invisible in the stinking river-wash, but Rey had found them just the same. She had a natural instinct for scavenging that seemed to go beyond a mere keen eye – sometimes it almost felt like she could see the objects in her mind before she actually spotted them, or pinpoint the exact location where a rabbit would turn and step into a snare, as if a sixth sense guided her there. She would never describe it as such, of course. All she knew was that she was good at what she did. Yet Rey could dig and scrape and hunt all she wanted - the treasures she found were for Plutt’s hands, and ultimately for someone else, some other more fortunate customer who would never dream of venturing out into the deepest and darkest hearts of the old forest to find their own baubles and delicacies.

 _I could find a chest of ancient treasure today for all the good it would do me,_ thought Rey angrily. _Plutt would still sniff and grunt and toss me a half- portion like he was doing me a favour before selling it for a fistful of silver._

Rey usually tried to look on the bright side of things. She was no highborn lady, but she had a roof over her head and clothes on her back, and she got to work out in the open air, to explore and investigate the depths of the wild forest she knew and loved so well. But something about her brimming pack made her feel dejected, rather than hopeful, as it usually would. She had found such nice little things, things she longed to take home with her and polish and craft and cherish. They were such small things, trifles really. Would it do any harm to let her have them? Rey had spent sweet minutes delicately cleaning the neat edges of the bone pin, holding the golden bead up to the slowly rising sun to marvel at the shine. The thought of Plutt rolling them in his fat fingers, smudging them with sweat, made her cringe. Perhaps if she were allowed to keep some things to herself, she could make something – something for her parents, maybe, to show them she hadn’t been idle while they were away, look, Mama, Papa, I made this, I did this, please take me  
back, I can be worth something, I can work, I’ll find treasures for you…

As she drifted back towards the dirt pathway that lead back to the city, these thoughts had dominated Rey’s mind so completely that she had dropped her guard somewhat. Her mind still occupied with that familiar daydream of her parents, she was completely unaware of the silent presence watching her from the shadows of the trees.

Then – forward movement.

A brittle autumn leaf crackled under a heavy footfall.

It was as if someone had snapped a fuse in Rey’s brain. Suddenly she registered the lack of birdsong, the quiet creak and rustle of slow, considered movement in the foliage behind her, and she felt the prickling, heated sensation that told her something was staring her down, something tightly coiled and waiting, waiting.

A deer, she thought, hopeful as ever, even as she knew, with the strange inexplicable certainty that had ever been with her, that it was no deer, but something else. Something predatory, something hungry.

Rey spun on her heels, snatching up her quarterstaff as she did so.

Watching her from a thick copse of fir trees was what appeared to be a young man, huge and half-crouched, yellow eyes fixed on her. In the dim green darkness of the forest, his milk-pale skin seemed unnaturally bright, and Rey was close enough to see the moles and mottled marks that dotted his skin like lichen on an aspen tree. The creature was massive, easily head and shoulders above Rey, herself hardly short, and dense with tight cords of muscle that shifted and stretched as he rose up slightly out of his crouched position and padded ever-so-carefully towards a paralyzed Rey. He moved with a considered grace that was all the more astounding for his size, and Rey realized with a plummeting heart that even the most savage blow with her staff would all but bounce off of this beast’s muscled bulk. Thick tufts of coarse black hair coated his knotted limbs and his broad back, coils entangling to create a dense dark mane which terminated in a long, lazily flicking tail.

Fighting wouldn’t save her, and it was too late to run, but Rey was determined not to be easy prey. Her hands tightening on her staff, she glared up into her hunter’s strange, long face.

It was a startling face, with young antler-stumps bursting from his broad forehead and cruel, curved tusks jutting from his thick lips. His nose was big and his pointed ears were batlike, yet there was nothing animal about that face, and Rey realized with a jolt that it was a face she had seen before. More importantly, she had seen those eyes before. In dreams, she had looked up into those same eyes – yellow and intense and fiery, and yet those dreams were never nightmares. Even as terror coursed through her (she was close enough now to see smears of blood on his chest and mouth, close enough to smell the hot pungent stink of him, fresh offal and rich marrow), Rey found herself unable to tear herself from the monster’s burning gaze.

There was hunger in that stare, but there was curiosity also, and Rey couldn’t help but share that curiosity. She had never truly seen one of the people of the forest before. She had heard stories whispered of close encounters, of glimpses and snatches of distant songs, and had half-believed all of them – she knew better than anyone how deep the forest went, the strange living energy that dwelled there. But this, this was different. She could almost reach out and touch…

Unconsciously, she raised a hand. Before she realized what she was doing, her hand was engulfed by a massive paw.

Rey let out a strangled yelp, but there was no violence in his grip. She could sense a terrible crushing strength in him, but his hold on her was firm, not painful. He was looming over her, and Rey was torn between to desire to draw closer to him and the desire to crack him over the head with her staff. Before she could settle on any of them, her captor spoke up.

His voice was a deep brassy rumble, but his words were unintelligible. Rey blinked, astonished at the timbre of his voice – she had been expecting a grunt or a growl, not this clear articulation, even if she couldn’t understand his language. Still reeling slightly, Rey shook her head.

“I don’t understand…I don’t know what you’re saying.”

Rey cursed herself for how confused and young she sounded, like one of the scruffy kids who scrambled and fought in the dirty gutters of Jakku, asked to run an errand they didn’t understand. Yet the fae thing before her seemed to understand. He cocked his head to one side, gently pulling her closer.

_Who are you?_

The same voice, but now Rey understood him. She understood because she didn’t hear him with her ears – instead, the voice came from inside, echoing through the pathways of her mind.

Rey almost collapsed. At the sound of his voice she felt aeons worth of soil and earth pass beneath her fingers, heard the roar and bellow of monsters hunting in the dark. She saw the moon wax and wane in an instant, felt a web of immense energy entrap her, something dark and ancient and familiar and powerful, and it welcomed her back as she opened her eyes and saw him. His eyes were as bright as ever, gazing at her with what she can only describe as awe. No one had ever looked at Rey like that. Rey wasn’t sure whether it frightened or excited her.

“Rey, I’m Rey,” she managed to choke out, but in her head she had already supplied him with more than a name. Memories of days spent crouching stiff and aching in the mud, watching an empty trap. The helpless frustration that she keeps hidden, tucked away, as Plutt short-changes her again. The nights spent trying to ignore the gnawing ache of hunger worming its way into her guts. The constant dreaming of family, spending every spare minute wondering what they look like, if they’ll remember her, if they’ll even come back at all…

He knows. He understands.

He’s lonely too, Rey realized with a jolt, and she couldn’t help the wave of sympathy that flooded her. Only a minute ago she was preparing to crack his skull, and now she wants to comfort him. _Great survival skills there, Rey_. But this is the first time that this has ever happened – not just the being-cornered-by-a-fae thing, although that is a first as well, she must admit – but the first time she’s ever met someone whose mind feels…connected somehow, able to reach out beyond its own boundaries and merge with things outside. The sensation of engulfing and being engulfed by another mind was overwhelming in a way that Rey had never understood before, but now she had something to compare it to,  
she was newly aware of the deep well of power inside her, which just hours ago had been merely a simple knack, a useful but ultimately ordinary talent.

She looked back up at the source of this revelation. She didn’t even know his name, but she didn’t have to ask.

 _Kylo Ren_ , the answer rumbled through her mind, and Rey couldn’t help but repeat it aloud. His answering smile was almost imperceptible – a brief upward quirk of his wide mouth – but Rey sensed his pleasure at the sound of her saying his name. She was honestly still astonished at how much she was at home with this bizarre new connection, how quickly the forest monster from a thousand warning fables had ceased to frighten her. She wondered if the old women back in Jakku, the ones who loved to tell dark tales of the terrible creatures who lurked in the forest, had ever heard of anything even remotely like this.

At the thought of the village, the man – Kylo – huffed, sounding darkly amused.

_You don’t have to go back there ever again. I’ll lead you home. Come with me, I’ll show you…_

Rey balked, twisting out of his grip. “What?” Suddenly the details of those older stories came snaking back into her head. Princesses kidnapped, forced to marry ogres and trolls and things that lived under bridges. Kept in chains until some prince found them.

But wasn’t she in chains already? Plutt may as well have had her in cuffs. And no prince would ever come searching for some dirty gutter-picking orphan…

Rey clamped down hard on that thought. There was a reason she had stayed all those years, throughout all the hardship, no matter how many time the forest seemed to be calling out to her. She knew she could survive in the forest, even on her own. Hell, she would probably be better off in there. But no-one apart from scavengers and hunters ventured deep into the forest. Anyone going in there without a guide likely wouldn’t last long. If Rey ran away from Jakku – from Plutt and his sweaty, stinking, grasping hands, away from life on quarter-portions and dirt and thirst – then she would be turning her back on her parents, too. She couldn’t do that.

_I can’t come with you. My parents…_

Rey struggled, even in her mind, to explain herself. She had never talked to anyone else about her parents like this.

 _And yet here you are, spilling your heart out to a monster,_ hissed a small, hard part of Rey’s mind.

Kylo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

_Your parents? Why would they come back for you? They left you among the humans like you were nothing to them. They’re not coming back._

Rey stiffened as his words erupted in her mind. The bond between them felt suddenly taut, electric, as a thousand emotions roiled inside her, seething like a cauldron on the boil.

How dare he.

How dare he talk to her as if he knew what it felt like to abandoned, as if he had any right to those feelings after she had only just revealed them?

How dare he destroy the foundation of her life so casually, so bluntly, as if she were an idiot for ever believing in her parents?

How dare he be right?

Rey knew. She doesn’t even have to search her feelings. The knowledge has always been there – she had just piled enough emotional debris on top of it that she didn’t ever have to confront it. But now it was here, staring her in the face.

Kylo wasn’t smiling. She couldn’t sense any malevolence emanating from him. She wished she could, so that she could hate him properly. Her tears blurred her vision, blocking him from view, but his voice couldn’t be blocked out.

_Rey._

_Go away._

_Rey, listen._

_You’re a monster._

_Yes. I am._

Rey closed her eyes, tried to squeeze away her tears. When she opened them, Kylo was crouched again, waiting.

_Please, come with me, Rey. Your home is in the forest. Who your parents are doesn’t matter, not to me. Please._

_Please…_

He’s holding his hand out again. For an instant, Rey hesitated. Images of a potential future flooded her mind. Before, when she pondered escaping into the forest, it had always been her alone, surviving on her wits like she did every day. But now she saw herself dressed in rich furs and draped in rough gemstones, seated at the head of a bustling table groaning with strange fruits and joints of meat, in the centre of a great stone cavern thronged with bizarre creatures and people of all shapes and sizes, all of them admiring, friendly, eager to laugh, to serve and advise. The vision was replaced by another, and now there are no furs to wear because the night is warm and the moon is high. In a clearing behind her, deep in the forest, eerie shapes are dancing and twirling around a great roaring bonfire, singing ancient chants in eager, sonorous voices, but Rey is seated by the banks of a river, bare legs stretched out in the cool rushing waters as Kylo braids sweet-scented wildflowers into her hair. Two dark-haired children are playing in the shallow waters nearby, splashing and shrieking with delight, and they are hers, her family, who will never abandon her, and she will never be lonely again.

Rey sobbed as the visions faded. It’s more than she ever wanted, but already her hand was retreating, curling back to her side. _Anything a fairy promises you, that thing will turn to dust, remember that._ She wasn’t sure who told her that, but she remembered it all the same. Rey knew you couldn’t get something for nothing.

_Rey, I’m not trying to trick you-_

-but already she was turning away, running back to the path, to her old life, trying not to listen to his voice, trying not to think, trying not to regret. She couldn’t trust him, not one of the forest people. They lied to you, filled your head with visions that could never come true, and in the end you wasted away pining after shadows. Rey wasn’t going to fall into that trap.

Yet she couldn’t stop the tears falling as she ran back towards the distant, and she couldn’t help looking over her shoulder all the way back. If he tried to follow her, she didn’t see him.

 

* * *

 

During the week that followed, Rey stuck to the outskirts of the forest, unwilling to risk another run-in with the forest creature who knew far too much about her. Her scavenging hauls suffered for it, and in turn so did Rey. She resorted to bargaining with other scavengers for scraps and favours. It was daunting work, but it gave Rey an excuse to talk to some of the older ones about a subject that had been at the front and centre of her mind ever since that meeting deep in the forest.

Changelings. Almost every scavenger, hunter, junk trader and scrap merchant at the market had something to say about changelings. Back in the days when the people of the forest (the shining ones, the fairy folk, the wild hunt, the old court) had been more numerous, and had ruled the forest entirely, before the days of iron and of Christ, they had made it their business to snatch children from their parents, leaving one of their own in their place. Inquiring as to their reasons for this, Rey received a wide variety of answers.

“Well, they do say that the fairies think a young ‘un growing up with humans is good for them. Like those nobs up at the castle, sending their little lords and ladies away to get themselves some learning, eh? Helps ‘em grow up right.”

“Forest people lazy, junk rat. Can’t be arsed to raise cubs, so send cubs to humans, humans do work for them. Like cuckoo bird. Take human cub to be slave for them. Less work all around for forest people. Forest people like Plutt, hah!”

“These fae folk were cruel, my child. They had no knowledge of love or of God, and they took delight in tormenting all people who follow the Lord. Unbaptised children were most at risk, for they were not under God’s protection. It may be that these spirits were seeking simply to cause pain and strife among us, to test the hearts of the faithful.”

“Don’t ask me. Might be that human kids taste better than fairy ones.”

Changelings themselves were barely mentioned initially. It was all about methods of keeping children safe, of how to avoid attracting the attention of the Gentry. Usually iron was involved. Rey delicately steered all conversations back to the topic of changelings themselves. How could you recognize them? What were they like?

Changelings were ugly and deformed, except when they weren’t. Changelings were vicious and aggressive and lashed out, except when they were strange and secretive and withdrawn. They were weak and frail and witless, except when they were unnaturally strong and fast and clever. They were childlike and eternally youthful, except for when they revealed themselves to be ancient and withered. There was no consistent definition of a changeling from anyone – a changeling could be a thousand different things.

Almost like people, Rey thought treacherously.

There was one thing nearly everyone agreed with though. Eventually, all changelings went back to where they came from. Sometimes they were driven out by their adoptive families seeking their real child. Often a holy man would reveal the imposter and chase them away with the aid of a blessed relic or an iron tool or, failing that, a whip. But other times – and her Rey leaned closer – other times, a child who had lived among humans for years and years would suddenly get up, leave their home, wander into the wilderness and never be seen again.

“The fae folk know their own, always,” a stocky, greying junk trader intoned solemnly, as Rey scrubbed at the pile of scrap before her. “A changeling will have magic in it, no matter how well disguised it is, and it calls out, hmm. That’s a dangerous thing. One changeling could bring a hoard of fairies trooping in, or do some great mischief with a power it never learns to use. The stories I’ve heard…it is well now that their numbers are waning, hmm. The forest folk don’t play nice with the likes of us.”

_A dangerous thing._

That night, in the dingy hovel at the edges of the village slums, Rey couldn’t sleep for thinking. Not for the first time, it was her parents who crowded her mind. She had speculated endlessly on their identity for years. She wondered what they looked like. She wondered where they came from, where they were now. She wondered how they earned their bread, how they lived. She had even wondered whether or not they had any other children, whether she was a sister to someone out there without knowing it.

She had never, ever wondered whether they were human or not.

Rey kept replaying what Kylo had said to her in the forest, over and over; they left you among the humans. Among the humans.

The implication was clear – Rey’s parents, and by extension Rey, were not human.

Yet according to all the stories she had heard told, changelings were always left with human families. Rey never had a family, not even an adopted one. No one had woken up to find Rey in the place of their own human child. She had been plucked from the gutter somewhere by Plutt, the fate of so many other orphans on the street. Why would any fairy dump their child in a human town and leave them there? It was unheard of, even in legend and myth.

And yet again…there was the bond. The bond was what Rey had dubbed the strange connection forged between her and Kylo that fateful morning, and it had changed everything. Ever since that moment something implacable had awoken within her, something she couldn’t control. Snippets of other people’s thoughts had begun to wash into her mind as she walked through the market, and there were times when alien emotions would flood through her without warning as she picked up on the feelings of those around her. Once or twice, when she was sorting through her pack, an item she had been focusing on would rise into the air, spinning gently until Rey snatched it and stuffed it hurriedly back into her pack before anyone saw.

Kylo, Rey fumed. It all came back to him. It was his fault. He had stalked her through the woods and snatched her up and made her feel things she had never felt before, then had turned her life inside out and had awakened some eerie power in her, entirely on a whim.

She still sensed him sometimes, slinking around the borders of the forest, gingerly reaching out with his mind, retreating when he sensed her mental barriers. Rey had uncovered a couple of tiny packages of miscellaneous bones, colourful rocks and soft berries during her daily forays into the forest, and she was certain he had left them there for her. She had felt a burst of delight at the idea of being given gifts, another thing that had never happened to her, before quickly tamping it down into angry disdain. She had had no idea what to do with them – she didn’t want anyone, Plutt especially, getting his hands on the packages, but she didn’t want Kylo thinking she was some flightly, witless human child who could be bought with presents either. In the end, she had taken them home and hid them under her pallet, feeling guilty for doing so. She had eaten the berries on the spot, and felt no guilt about doing that.

Whether Rey liked it or not, she knew she would have to talk to the wild creature again. He knew things about her parents, things she needed to know too. And this time she wouldn’t cry or flinch from the truth.

Turning over under her thin blanket, Rey sighed. It was easier said than done. Even as a part of her longed to speak with Kylo again, another part shrank away. She knew that if she went to him, there would be no going back, no returning to this life. It wasn’t much of a life, but it was familiar, routine, and Rey had built it steadily, all on the base of her hope in her family. Now that base was crumbling, and Rey was being forced to choose – sink with the ship, or learn how to swim really fast.

Rey thought of the visions she had in the forest. She remembered Kylo’s eyes, the tenderness in his voice as he begged for her. As she closed her eyes, she sensed his presence, distant and yet comforting, watchful. He knew she was safe.

Before her mind slid away from his entirely, Rey had made her decision. She would go to him under the next full moon.

 

* * *

 

 

Kylo Ren loped back and forth on the borders of the forest, circling the village of Jakku like a wary scavenger at a carcass. Even under cover of darkness, it was unusual for one of the forest folk to venture so near to a human village. The time when a single troll could menace a whole town with impunity were long gone – the humans had iron now, and even Kylo, scion of one of most powerful and ancient fae families, would be no match for a mob of armed humans. Besides, usually Kylo hated any sort of proximity to humans. He hated their high, jabbering voices, their weak, insipid minds, the metallic smell of their skin. Most of all he resented their ugly villages, a visual marker of all that they had taken from his people. Even a young troll like he could remember the days long ago when the people of the forest had dwelt unhindered all across the land, and had travelled without fear. Now they were forced deeper and deeper into forests and mountains and bogs as the humans spread uncontrollably. It made his blood boil to see it. His temper had always been too hot, his mother used to say whenever he flew into one of his rages. He knew that she had simply been trying to protect him; these days, it was necessary for fairies to learn how to hide rather than to fight. Yet though he had learned to keep his peace for her sake, Kylo could never entirely banish the disgust he felt when he saw humans milling in the filth of their villages, bickering and stealing and crushing and making everything so ugly with their presence. He felt it would do him good to destroy at least one whole human village in his lifetime.

And if there was one village he could destroy, Kylo wanted it to be this one, because it was the village where she was imprisoned. It was a prison partly of her own making, it was true, but it was a prison nonetheless, and Kylo longed to free her from it. He knew from the moment he first saw her, months ago, that she was a creature of the forest, and that she no more belonged in Jakku than he did. Day after day he had watched her tramp back to the dirty little village after hours of scavenging, and it always pained him to see her go, to imagine her stuck among the squalling, miserable mass of humanity, hungry and beaten down, trapped like a hound on a tight leash. The very thought was enough to make him snap. Rey deserved more. She deserved the whole forest. She deserved freedom, and companionship, and every precious thing the wild world had to offer. Kylo would have gladly given them to her. Even now, after she seemed to have retreated from him and the forest realm altogether, Kylo couldn’t help but dream of placing her at the head of the wild hunt, wrapped in the mantle of a fairy queen and with his mating-marks adorning her throat and hips. That was where she belonged.

As Kylo ceased his circling to rest briefly beneath the sagging branches of an old pine, he admitted to himself that his current situation was as much his fault as anyone’s. He hadn’t really meant to reveal himself to her that day, weeks ago now. He had simply been so enraptured by her, so close to him, so beautiful in the dawn glow. She had seemed sad, despite apparently having had quite the successful morning. Kylo assumed his urge to comfort her had simply overwhelmed his ingrained instinct to hide himself.

It had been a relief, in one way, to finally reveal his presence. He had been dreaming and planning it out in his head for quite a while, and yet in the moment it had all simply…happened, as if fated to do so. It had all been going so well…

 _And then you had to go and open your blasted mouth_ , Kylo berated himself.

He should have known. Even if she was fae by birth, Rey would have grown up among humans and listened to their tales of monstrous creatures lurking in the woods to snatch maidens and eat children. He had assumed she would jump at the chance to escape into the forest with him, but Kylo realized now that she had been free to do so long before he had arrived on the scene, and yet still had chosen to stay among the humans. He should have probed more gently, persuaded her, instead of bumbling in like a blind colt, frightening her and ruining everything.

Kylo huffed and collapsed against the trunk of the tree. The well of angry energy that had fueled him through his nightly circuits was almost dry, and now he felt drained and miserable, sulky almost. He reached out again, searching for Rey, needing to know she was safe, that she was sleeping soundly. He had never felt like this about anyone. Even in his youth he had been a somewhat lonesome thing, prone to wandering. It was what had made him such a ripe target for others, and Kylo spat in disgust as he remembered cold, alien fingers slithering their way into his brain, seeking to sever the few lingering ties left there. Even though he knew that the warlock Snoke was too far to hear his thoughts now, it was hard to shake the slimy tracks the man’s magic had left inside his mind.

It had been Rey - the sight of her, the sound of her voice and the brush of her mind against his - that had woken him up, banished the echoes of his tormentor. In her Kylo had sensed a power to match his own, and a terrible loneliness that he himself knew intimately. He had taken to watching her as she scavenged, marvelling at her nimble movements, her deft, clever hands, her bright eyes, the sweet softness of her voice when she deigned to speak or even sing. He felt somehow healed by her presence, and sometimes he felt it was as if they had come to know each other without them ever truly meeting.

Yet every day she would go back to the village where she suffered so much hunger and torment, and Kylo grew more and more troubled as he sensed her distress. This wonder of a girl, who could do so much and whose simple presence brought him so much joy, was starving and miserable, and yet he could do nothing but watch. He simply couldn’t stand it. He pictured Rey tied down, trembling in utter darkness. Sometimes he imagined a man wielding an iron rod looming over her, a man who looked a lot like Snoke. Kylo had never imagined that Rey would want to stay with humans of her own free will; no, he assumed that she was being manipulated, lied to or threatened. In his experience, that was what humans did to forest folk, and that was why changelings always came back. He had heard of foolish fae who had thought that hiding their children among humans would make them better at blending in. It never worked. Humans would always jump at any opportunity to exploit magic for their own ends, Kylo thought grimly. In his mind, Rey’s parents were almost as guilty as the humans who trapped her. They had stranded her there among the iron people, left her to be exploited and abused for her talents and powers. They were just a convenient lie to keep her docile. He had thought Rey simply needed to be told the truth, and then she would be free, free to roam the forests with him.

Apparently not, Kylo thought miserably. Perhaps it was best for him to move on. After all, there was a chance that Snoke and his minions were still out searching for him. The man had spent too much time bending his fairy prize to his will to let him go so easily. They might stumble upon him here if he got too sloppy, moping around a human village like a grieving dog. But that would mean leaving Rey alone. Kylo was determined not to be like her worthless family and leave her to her dreary fate. He would not abandon her as they had done.

Nevertheless, he had not seen her for many moons now, and her absence was grating on his soul. If this went on for much longer, Kylo would probably end up spotted by some hunter or trapper, someone who had no compunctions about filling him with iron arrows and selling his pelt in the marketplace.

Sighing, Kylo was turning to retreat into the cool, safe depths of the forest when he sensed it; when he sensed her. It was faint, but unmistakable – Rey was in the forest. Far away, but getting closer.

Kylo didn’t hesitate, flinging himself in the direction of her distinct signal, trying to reach her himself - I’m coming, I’m coming, Rey. His heart was hammering, not with exertion, but at the thought of seeing her again. All customary cares of stealth and caution were thrown to the wind as he barrelled through the undergrowth, until –

She was standing on the far banks of a gurgling stream, somewhere between the forest’s borders and its darker depths. She looked up to meet his gaze almost at the instance he spotted her, and Kylo could see the light of the full moon reflected in her deep, dark eyes. A wave of emotions surged through him – confusion at seeing her after so many lonely days, relief that she was unharmed. A longing hope that she was ready now, that she had seen the light and was ready to come with him. Love, pure and simple and steady.

Rey took a step toward him, into the clear water of the stream, which didn’t quite reach her knees. Kylo stayed where he was. He had learned his lesson. Let Rey choose when to approach, no sudden startling moves. Even though he itched to leap across the rushing waters and scoop her up in his arms, to hold her as close to him as he possibly could, he restrained himself. The last thing he wanted was to frighten or upset her again. Usually Kylo was proud of the terror and disgust his appearance provoked in humans, but this was Rey. The thought of her shrinking away from him, cringing, turning her head, only brought shame, reminding him of how his crude words had hurt her during their first meeting.  
Rey glanced down, seemingly gathering her thoughts, before looking back up and speaking.

“Kylo…I came back because I wanted to…ask you some things. Some things I need to understand. About my parents.”

 _Fuck,_ thought Kylo.

“Did you know them?” Rey’s voice was clear and strong, but Kylo could see a hint of anxiety behind her determined gaze.

_No. Not personally._

“And yet you knew I wasn’t…”

 _Human. Yes._ Still Kylo remained motionless, watching Rey cautiously. He could sense her turmoil through their bond, and he felt it as if it were his own. He gazed into her eyes,  
silently begging her to speak again, to show him what she wanted.

 _Was it the bond? Is that how you knew?_ she questioned wordlessly.

 _I suppose it was_ , Kylo replied, just as silently. _I just… knew._

Rey met his eyes. For one awful, endless second, Kylo thought he could see an echo of wariness in her face, the same expression she had worn in that moment when he had revealed the truth of her origins. It appeared to have been his overactive imagination, however, because then Rey moved towards him, and this time there was no hesitancy in her step. For all his great size and power, Kylo couldn’t help but tremble before her as she closed the gap between them.

She started to speak, but then closed her mouth. The hairs on the back of Kylo’s neck stood on end as he felt the bond between them sizzle and sing as she opened her mind to him more fully.

_I want to leave. With you._

Kylo was half-certain his heart had stopped, and it must have shown on his face, because Rey continued quickly.

_On one condition. I want you to help me find out what happened to my parents._

Kylo hesitated, and all his potential objections crowded unsaid in his throat. They could be anywhere. They’re probably dead. You shouldn’t have to waste your life running after a pair of fools who abandoned you as if you were nothing.

He swallowed them without even stopping to consider. It doesn’t matter. This is what Rey wants, and what she wants she gets. She could have asked Kylo to find her a dragon’s egg and he would have agreed, if it meant he could be with her.

_Alright._

Rey breathed out, her eyes shining with unshed tears. Kylo sensed relief, nervousness, anticipation, resolve. He didn’t know what to say, or if he should even say anything. So he did what she had done when they first met each other. He held out his hand.

Rey hesitated. Just for a second. Then she placed her work-roughened hand in Kylo’s, gently gripping his palm. She smiled up at him, her face open and beautiful in the subtle glow of the moon.

_Then let’s go, Kylo Ren._

Together, they turned their backs on distant Jakku, and walked into the heart of the wild forest.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, more?   
> I decided to forge ahead with this one, mostly because I'll be without the internet for a month or so. Hopefully no-one minds that this one's a good deal shorter than the first one, mostly because I learned how to goddamn pace myself.

_“Well, I suppose we can rule out you being a water sprite.”_

 

 _“Very funny,”_ Rey huffed internally, glaring down at her travelling companion, or at least at the top of his head, the rest of him being submerged in the glassy lake water. _“It’s not my fault I never learned how to swim.”_

 

 _“Never implied that.”_ Kylo half-heaved himself out of the shallows, propping himself up on glistening shoulders. The woods here were peppered with small lakes and streams, but this was the first one they had come across that was deep enough to swim in. For Kylo at least; Rey had been content simply to paddle after she had scrubbed herself clean.

 

They had been wandering like this for at least a week, by Rey’s count, going deeper into the forest than even she had ever gone before. Here the foliage was thicker, untouched by tracks or pathways, and she had seen several species of trees and ferns which she had never encountered before. Kylo, however, seemed entirely at home here. His size appeared less freakish and intimidating the further he got from civilization, his movements smooth and considered, a league away from the tension he exhibited when he had first met her. Sometimes when Rey found herself struggling after a particularly arduous trek, he would hoist her wordlessly onto his broad shoulders and carry her effortlessly onward. At first Rey had felt embarrassed, unaccustomed to such a degree of physical intimacy and somehow convinced that she was being weak, a burden. She had never relied on anyone else but herself, and it had taken a lot of time swapping feelings and memories wordlessly though the bond they shared for her to truly become comfortable with the concept. Back in the village, she had avoided creating too many ties, at first convinced that she would be leaving soon, and later becoming determined not to rely on anyone. But she didn’t have to be alone anymore.

 

Rey lazily splashed her feet against the banks of the lake, half-watching Kylo shake himself dry. It was a nice change, she thought, to be able to enjoy the landscape at her own pace like this. There was no need to scrape and scratch for trinkets in the mud. When she had first set out with Kylo, they had set a gruelling pace, hiking through the undergrowth with only occasional pauses for rest or food. It was unlikely that Plutt had sent anyone after her – she was a good scavenger, but nowhere near good enough to justify hiring a bounty hunter – but there was still a risk that some other junk rat poking around the edges of the forest would recognize her and scamper back to the village to spread stories about a monster having kidnapped some poor girl. Kylo had risked enough by staying around the village as long as he had, and wasn’t eager to take any further ones, not when the result might be death for him and further enslavement for Rey.

 

Now, however, they had left Jakku far behind them, and they felt safe enough to slow to a more leisurely speed. After all, according to Kylo, their destination wasn’t going anywhere.

 

Kylo had decided early that they would get nowhere by wandering around the forest expecting to bump into her parents by pure chance. These days, he had told her as they lay curled around each other next to the dying embers of a campfire, there were very few fae who lived alone and nomadic, the way they used to in the ages long past. If her parents were indeed fae, then they had likely gone deep into hiding with others like them, in one of their people’s oldest haunts and sacred grounds.

 

“ _Are there many places like that? Safe havens, I mean?”_ she had asked, still voraciously chewing a strip of dried meat.

 

 _“Some, I suppose.”_ Kylo had replied quietly. _“I spent some of my childhood in one, the Marsh Keep, near the Clochar Mountains. My mother ruled there. Chances are your family is holed up in one of them.”_

 

_“So…we’ll just have to visit every haven until we find them.”_

_“That’s the plan.”_

_“You make it sound so easy,”_ she had laughed, nudging him with her shoulder. He smiled in response.

 

_“Like I said, I know these places. In fact, we’re only a couple of days away from the Marsh Keep. It’s good place to start. Even if they’re not there, there’s likely to be some fae there who have heard of them. They can set us on the right path.”_

Here his gaze had shifted, his shoulders sagged. _“I might see my mother there.”_

 

It had been the first time Kylo had really mentioned his own family. They had talked a bit about Rey’s – mostly to speculate about where they were, whether they were elves or sprites or fauns. Even then, Kylo had been careful enough to avoid talking about other things – like why they had abandoned Rey in the first place. Rey was grateful for that – that was something she didn’t really want to think about; at least until she found out if they were still out there at all. But as she looked back on that quiet fireside conversation, Rey realized that she had been focusing so hard on her own family that she knew barely anything about Kylo’s. If he had been raised with his mother among the Forest People, why had been separated from them? When had it happened? She knew, vaguely, that he had ended up among humans against his will, and that a warlock had been involved – she had sensed the memories that drifted across his mind, and the dark dreams that plagued him. But she had avoided asking him about it, because she suspected it would be painful for him to remember. He had done her the decency of avoiding a painful topic by not discussing her parents abandoning her. She felt that the least she owed him was to do the same.

 

And yet Rey was still curious. She couldn’t help it. It had always been her way to chase after strange things, to seek out the unusual, to constantly want to know more. It had gotten her in trouble more than once, but it had never left her. Even now, in the peace and quiet of the deep forest, enjoying the lazy warmth of the setting sun and the lapping motion of the water around her ankles, Rey’s mind was drawn again and again to Kylo’s. He was seated on a nearby dune, his feet and tail curled almost daintily beneath him, his dark eyes following the swooping movement of a pair of swallows dancing over the surface of the water. She felt waves of calm emanate from him, and it was enough to soothe her, too. _He deserves this,_ Rey found herself thinking. _He doesn’t need to be constantly answering my stupid questions about his world, his life._

“Rey.”

 

His voice cut through the hazy silence of the evening air. Rey was slightly startled; usually, when he wanted to talk to her, Kylo would communicate mentally. She had taught him some rudimentary Basic, but both of them had been more concerned with Rey learning the language of the forest people, since they would be her neighbours from now on. For his part, Kylo seemed to be less vocal than Rey, who could and would strike up a conversation with anything that crossed her path. He was much more at home with the strange intimacy of their mental connection, something which was, according to him, much more common amongst the fae than it was with humans.

 

Kylo was still sitting, apparently relaxed, but his eyes were fixed on hers now, bright and intense.

 

“…here.” There was a note of hesitation in his voice, just as there was when Rey taught him his first ‘human’ words. But Rey knew what he meant, just as she always did. So she padded over to him and flopped down next to him. Initially she had kept a respectable distance between her new friend and herself, but that barrier had faded quickly with no human rules to enforce it, and now she felt entirely comfortable almost sitting in his lap, listening to the steady huff of his breath.

 

 _“You don’t need to be worried about asking me questions.”_  His voice was more assured now that it was in Rey’s mind, and Rey buried her face against his shoulder, simultaneously thankful for his words and embarrassed that he had been able to pick up on her emotions.

 

_“I suppose I’m just…worried. I don’t know anything about…well, about any of this. I don’t know how to be fae, or even how to speak the language. I don’t even know much about you. I feel like an imposter, somehow, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in even if you tell me everything you know. I’ll just be the same person I was when I thought I was human.”_

_“And you think that’s a bad thing?”_ Kylo sounded both amused and offended on her behalf, and dropped his head so that his temple was resting against hers. It was something he did now and again, a physical reminder of the understanding between them. _“You don’t have to change anything. Even if…even if we don’t find your parents.”_

 

Rey tensed in his arms, but Kylo hurriedly went on. _“I don’t mean to say we won’t. But…even if that happens, Rey, you’ll still have a family. You’ll find your people, you’ll be free. And I won’t ever leave you, not unless you want that.”_

 

Rey didn’t reply with words, but she knew that Kylo could feel the impact his words had. Sometimes, she found that it was better like that; there was no possible way of lying or faking emotions like this. She let his words sink slowly into her mind, meeting and countering the anxieties, the fears of isolation, the lingering resentment towards her parents she didn’t want to acknowledge. It was both good and unpleasant; if Rey had known of the word ‘cathartic’, she probably would have used it here.

 

_“I blamed my own parents for a lot of things in the past. My father in particular. But looking back on it now I realize they were trying their best. For me.”_

 

Rey, tilting her head up, saw that Kylo’s eyes were shining, moisture collecting on the curve of his eyelids. She understood, then, that Kylo needed to talk about this just as much as she did. She reached out and clasped her hands around Kylo’s, fitting her fingers into the gaps between his so that they slotted together tightly.

 

 _“Tell me about them.”_ Rey’s tone was gentle, but it was a command all the same.

 

_“My mother was of royal birth. My father…let’s just say he was a couple of rungs below that. They loved each other well enough, I suppose, but they fought…quite a lot. My mother was always busy and my father never was the type to stay in one place for long, even by the standards of our people. You have to understand that humans were starting to become a problem for us at that time, and it had a negative effect on all of us – mother spent all of her time either fighting against human mobs or sheltering fae who were displaced. My father had several close run-ins with human bounty hunters. I was young, but I understood that it was humans who were causing my parents such pain. I could see the damage they caused, but really I was just a child angry that my parents had other things to do besides taking care of me. I think that’s why I was so easy to lure away.”_

 

Here Kylo paused, and Rey sensed a flash of shame, almost self-loathing, burn through him. She tightened her hand around his, but let him continue at his own pace.

 

_“It was a human warlock called Snoke who sought me out, but of course I didn’t know his identity at first. I thought he was fae, because he could get into my mind. He seemed sympathetic at first. He told me I was right to fear and hate humans. My parents had taught me to keep my head down and not make trouble. Snoke told me they were complacent cowards, and I listened because I was angry. He told me my name would strike fear into all humans and that all fae would thank me for freeing them. So I did his bidding like a trained dog. Attacked the people he told me to, terrorized the targets he pointed me at. It wasn’t long until I was completely in his thrall. I didn’t even think about why Snoke was always the one to tell me who to go after. I just didn’t question his power. There were other fae who followed him too, who were convinced they were fighting on behalf of our people. I left my family, my friends, everything behind. It was only after years of being used that I discovered the truth. Snoke was just a wizened old human con man who manipulated disillusioned fae into doing his bidding, using them to strike fear into his enemies. I had sacrificed years of my life to hatred and destruction for nothing but a foul, hissing voice in my head. I ran. I didn’t know where I was going – just that I had to go. I was lost for a long time. I only wanted to get back to my family somehow, explain to them what went wrong, apologize – something. And then I found you.”_

Rey listened, stunned. This was the longest she had heard Kylo speak, even through the bond. He was naturally prone to short sentences, putting thought into most things before saying them.  This, though…this was something he had wanted to get out for a long time, and it gushed out like blood from an open wound – the shame, the disgust and misery, the loneliness, the fear. The constant, crushing conviction that he was tainted now, forever impure. And also light and hope and joy, because he had found her, just as she had found him. Rey felt overwhelmed, and she was unsure if most of it was her own emotions or his. Even through the bond, she struggled to find the right words – to console him, praise him, confront him, thank him or damn him – and realized that no amount of words would be enough.

So instead of scavenging for the right words as she used to scavenge for treasure, she decided on the spur of the moment to make something new of her own. One hand on his chest steadied her as the other reached up to gently pull Kylo’s face down to her own, and as that hand made its way into his wild hair, Rey let her lips touch his.

 

It wasn’t the most elegant of kisses. Rey had only ever observed couples kissing from a distance, and even then they were mostly short, businesslike pecks, nothing that would encompass what she wanted to show. Access to Kylo’s lips was made even more complicated by his nose and teeth, which Rey had to gingerly manoeuvre herself around. Yet his mouth was soft and warm and he was responding in kind, his big hands shifting to rest on her hips – awkwardly at first, then with more confidence as he pulled her even closer to him, as though wishing to engulf her entirely.

 

When the broke apart, Kylo was looking at her as though she had transformed into a mermaid. Flustered, Rey shuffled slightly in his embrace, just embarrassed enough to slip into Basic speech.

 

“I,uh…I didn’t mean to be pushy, I just…”

 

 _“No! No, it isn’t that, it’s…ah…maybe you should turn and look for yourself,”_ Kylo laughed in a breathless, fascinated way that Rey had never heard before. Rey did so, and almost jumped out of her own skin when she saw what Kylo had been staring at.

 

A long, brown tail hung languidly behind her, the tufted tip dragging in the sand between her feet. In a daze of disbelief, Rey reached behind her and found the base of the tail attached to the curve of her spine just above her buttocks. She gave it an exploratory tug, and winced at the sensation; yes, it was definitely hers. She had a _tail._

As she palmed and stroked the unexpected new addition to her body, Rey found her initial shock give way to a heady mix of fascination and pride. Here was physical proof, a mark of belonging – a mark of the fae. What would have left her cast out among humans was now a source of relief, a link to her parents, a sign that she was finally going back to where she belonged.

 

Still clutching her tail in both hands like it was a precious treasure, Rey turned, beaming, back to Kylo. He was smiling a smile bigger than any smile he had ever smiled before – it lit up his whole face. Rey couldn’t help it. At the sight of his expression, she flung herself into his arms, laughing fit to burst. Kylo began to laugh along with her, scooping her up and swinging her around until she squealed, breathless with glee and strange, heady excitement.

 

 _“Definitely not a water sprite,”_ he thought, and Rey could only laugh again, until the forest echoed with her as though she had an audience, as though her joy was so infectious that the whole world was celebrating with her.

 

Later, when the darkness closed in and they had made their camp, the excitement was still there, simmering between them. They had both known sorrow, more than their share, but now they were moving on, together, to forge something new and good away from the past that had hurt them. Rey was as distractible as a kitten, playfully batting and flicking at Kylo with her tail, until Kylo eventually ended the game by grabbing her in a determined bear-hug. Exhausted by the length and strange emotional intensity of the day, the pair fell asleep almost simultaneously, lulled by the distant humming of night-insects.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there y'have it, folks. I decided to focus a bit more on Kylo for this one, since Rey was the spotlight character in the first chapter.  
> Also I'd just like to thank everyone who liked this fic, especially those who commented. This is my first fic and it was really nice getting positive feedback. Hopefully ye enjoy where this goes.
> 
> Also the whole tail ordeal isn't just me pulling stuff out of my ass - the mythology of this fic is loosely Scandinavian in flavor, and some Scandinavian folktales tell of fairy women (or huldra) who looked exactly like beautiful human women apart from the fact that they had cow tails. So.


	3. Chapter 3

Leia sighed and stood, wincing as she felt her knees stiffen and groan. She had noticed that she had been slowing down lately, but she didn’t want to dwell on it. There were other things to focus on. There had been an influx of new arrivals to the settlement, and they needed to be seen to; there were matters of security to be discussed with some of the older dwellers, on top of that. Even with the new blood, their numbers were dwindling, and that meant the ancient stronghold was vulnerable to humans. It was Leia’s duty to see to all of it, and the less time she spent up here in the lord’s tower pondering when exactly she had gotten so _old_ , the better.

 

Yet Leia couldn’t help herself from dwelling on the past. _Who could blame me, when this is all I have now? A half-abandoned old ruin to defend, aching joints and no-one left._

 

It was that last part that hurt the most, undoubtedly, Leia reflected glumly as she began to descend the stone stairs. Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, among the last true rulers of the free folk, had faced down countless enemies and survived harsher conditions than her younger colleagues could imagine, and she had always retained her courage and good humour in the face of it all. Back then, she had been surrounded by friends, by family, by people worth fighting for. Now, though, Leia felt more and more alone with every passing day.

_And it all started with Ben_ , she thought to herself as she made her way purposefully through the thin crowds of nymphs, dryads and trolls who were milling through the courtyard of the old castle, huddling together against the groaning dusk winds. She would always think of her son as Ben, for he had been Ben long before he had been anything else – before he had become a loner, a seer, an outcast, a warrior, an extremist, he had been Ben, her son. When he had left, everything else had fallen irrevocably apart. The last time she had seen Han alive had been when he was setting out to search for their son, risking encounters with the humans that had eventually killed him. He had always been too reckless, and Leia had long suspected that Han’s careless approach to human-fae interaction would eventually get the better of him. That hadn’t made it any easier to bear when his body had been retrieved. And Luke…Luke wasn’t coming back either.

 

The weather was grim, reflecting and amplifying her mood. Nevertheless, Leia had always been a great believer in channelling strong emotions into productive work, and with that goal in mind, she set out to meet the gaggle of new faces that had settled near the gates of the fairy stronghold.

 

It wasn’t as bad as she had imagined from Ackbar’s report. There were bruises and scrapes aplenty, and one young kobold had a broken collarbone, but nothing life-threatening and the rag-tag group were mostly in good shape, relieved at finding shelter and eager to contribute. _There is hope yet,_ Leia thought to herself with a smile, as she watched a pair of elflings attempt to climb the crawling ivy coating the stone walls around them, as their parents watched apprehensively.

 

Then the harsh voice of a sentry tore her attention away from the youngsters. Kaydel Ko Connix, one of their most dedicated lookouts, had spied figures approaching the gates.

 

“Another group?” Leia asked tersely, approaching the young woman perched on the wooden scaffold propped up against the gate that served as a watchtower.

 

Connix shook her head. “No, only two from what I can see, but…I think you might have to look for yourself, General.”

 

The climb up to the platform where Connix was standing was haphazard, undignified and slightly painful, but Leia sprang into action in a way that would have put several younger officers to shame. She knew well enough that Connix wasn’t the type to play jokes – if she wanted General Organa to take a look at something, then it was probably something General Organa needed to look at.

 

Finally level with the sentry, Leia was granted a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape. Perched as it was on the upper slopes of a boulder-strewn hilltop, Marsh Keep was an ideal location to defend. Any attempts at a sneak attack could be easily spotted by patrolling guards on the walls, while there was the added bonus of being able to see and intercept incoming groups of wandering fae and prepare the keep for their arrival.

 

Even so, the approaching pair in question would have been hard to miss from any vantage point, let alone the walls of Marsh Keep. There were only two of them, but they were making no effort to disguise their approach from either human or fairy eyes, walking calmly upright instead of making use of the boltholes and boulders that littered the landscape. Even from a distance Leia could make out the dark mane of hair on the male, who was broad-shouldered and powerfully built ( _good soldier material,_ Leia found herself thinking hopefully), and the strange, tunic-like apparel the female was wearing. _Almost like a human’s clothes_ – a worrying thought, but a glimpse of a neat brown tail and the jut of the girl’s pointed ears were enough to sooth Leia’s brief anxiety.

 

Other than their bold daylight approach and the girl’s unusual attire, however, Leia could hardly make out why Connix had insisted she come up here. She was about to turn to the sentry to question her, when something – some small, inconsequential motion of his head, perhaps – caught her eye and drew it back towards the approaching man. Something…something familiar… and then a single step forwards brought his face into clear view, features crystallizing from what had once been a blurry distant mass, and Leia’s heart gave a huge, violent thud as it leapt into her throat.

 

  _No…it couldn’t possibly be – after all this time?_ Yet there was no mistaking those features, the narrow face and strong nose that their son had inherited from his father. It was like looking into Han’s face all over again, and Leia realized distantly that her eyes had filled with tears.

 

“General?” Connix murmured diplomatically, somewhere behind her. “General, should I send someone down to - ?”

 

But she was already too late. The General was already through the gates and approaching the pair before Connix even had the chance to finish her sentence. She wasn’t the only one to have noticed the General’s sudden departure, if the kerfuffle surrounding the gates was anything to go by.

 

“Ma’am…the General…should we…?”

 

“No.” Connix answered decisively. She had known that the General would want to be alone for this. Nevertheless, she slung her bow from her shoulder, and was pleased to see the other sentries along the wall follow her lead. There was no telling why the prodigal son had returned after all this time, and as for the strange girl with him…well, better to be safe than sorry.

 

Nevertheless, judging by Leia’s body language, it was Ben Solo who should be worried about protection. Konnix smiled mirthlessly. General Leia’s put-downs were legendary. She was almost glad she was safely here on the walls.

 

*

 

Kylo had been adamant that they make their approach obvious. It would mean that they would be less likely to be perceived as a threat, and hopefully it would give his mother time to react to the sight of them – if she was there at all, of course.

 

It had seemed like the best way to do things at the time, so Rey had agreed, even though Kylo could tell that a lifetime of sneaking and stalking in the shadows had taught her to prefer stealth. Nevertheless, neither of them could help but repress a shiver at the sight of the hilltop fortress. Even in its dilapidated state, the ruin was imposing, sketching a jagged line against the stark white sky. If Kylo concentrated hard, he could just make out specks of movement on the stone walls. _Well, at least there are still enough of my mother’s people there to man the walls._

 

Next to him, Rey seemed even more intimidated by the sight, but her step never slowed, and Kylo felt a bubble of pride well up inside him as he noticed this. Swallowing his own fear, he reached out and clasped her hand in his, feeling some of the tension leave her as she squeezed his fingers gratefully.

 

Even with Rey’s hand in his, Kylo could feel his heart thumping in his throat. Up on that hill, inside that keep, his mother would be waiting. He knew that she would never abandon her people, no matter what the odds. He knew his mother, even after all these years had passed. Would she still recognize her own son? Probably - but even so, would she even want him back? What could he say to her after all this time? What could he say that would explain all of it? The harsh wind roared around his ears, jumbling his thoughts and making his temples throb.

 

Kylo’s worrying was cut abruptly short when he caught sight of a small figure emerge from the gates of the keep and march steadily towards them. _Mother_ , he thought, as his limbs stiffened.

 

Princess Leia Organa was not what many humans would have imagined fae royalty to look like. She was a short and sturdy-looking woman, wearing a simple, practical robe and cloak instead of shimmering silks and magnificent jewels. The elegant braided styling of her greying hair was the only thing that seemed to hint at her status. Yet as she came closer, both Rey and Kylo felt a surge of unearthly energy that was similar to what they had grown used to feeling around each other, and both knew instinctively – or, in Kylo’s case, remembered - that Leia Organa possessed just as much power as her towering son, or likely even more, her natural might honed through years of experience while Kylo’s still remained somewhat raw and unbalanced.

 

Rey, meanwhile, was naturally enthralled, as Kylo had guessed she would be. She was more adept now at reading magical energy, thanks to Kylo’s teachings, but somehow she felt that even humans would be able to subconsciously sense this woman’s powers, and feel the same mix of curious awe, respect and protection that Rey herself felt now.

 

Leia didn’t seem to notice Rey’s reverent attitude at all. Instead, her dark, warm eyes were fixed immovably on Kylo’s face. Both he and Rey had come to a halt by now – their pace had slowed steadily since they had spotted Leia – but Leia herself had not, and now she stood within arm’s reach of her lost son.

Kylo could tasted his heart throbbing madly in his throat as he felt his mother’s eyes bore into him.

 

Then –

 

“Ben. Look at me, Ben.”

 

Kylo’s head jerked at the sound of his mother’s voice, surprise and pain written on his stricken face. He hadn’t heard that name in what felt like a lifetime. He had told Rey, of course, that he had discarded his true name when he had ran away to join Snoke. But to hear his mother call him that…Kylo felt himself crumbling. Everything he had planned to say to her – things that he had thought of and carefully put together in his head as he had plodded ever closer to his fate – was dying, strangled in his chest. She still recognized him as her son. But what did she want from him?

 

To open his goddamn mouth, it seemed. Leia’s gaze had softened, but she was still clearly expecting an answer. Before Rey gave into the urge to nudge him into action, Kylo – Ben – found his tongue again.

 

“Mother, I – I know I - I’m _sorry…_ I…”

 

His voice was so low that it was almost drowned out by the bellow of the wind, but he could see that Leia had heard him. He fell silent again, his voice trailing off miserably. Part of him hated how weak and pathetic he sounded…but the other half, that half that had matured in exile, insisted that he deserved this, that he should show his mother how truly ashamed he was…

 

Leia eyed him for another tense second. Then she heaved a great regretful sigh and shook her head.

 

“Typical Solo man. Leaves for years without a word, then comes back with a young lady on his arm and doesn’t even have the good manners to introduce her to his mother properly? I thought I raised you better than that, Ben Solo, but apparently you take after your father in more ways than one…”

 

Kylo sputtered in disbelief as he tried to adjust to the unexpected new direction their reunion was taking. “What? Mother…?”

 

“I do apologize for him,” Leia continued, ignoring her bewildered son to turn to Rey, who had shuffled backwards in order to give the mother and son pair some space. “He may have told you about me before, but I feel like nothing can improve on an old-fashioned face-to-face, don’t you?”

 

“Yes! I mean, uh, of course, Your Majesty.”

 

“Majesty?” Leia’s laugh was so loud that Kylo was convinced that half of Marsh Keep had heard it. “Now that is rich. I don’t know what exactly my son has been filling your head with” – here Leia tossed a look at Kylo that was equal parts exasperation and fondness – “but they don’t call us the Free Folk for nothing. No point in standing on ceremony is what I’m saying, especially not now. Please call me Leia.”

 

The smile Rey gave Leia in return was like the sun itself, and in that moment Kylo’s mind was blank of everything but the sight of her, glowing with excitement and a sort of amused pride. He couldn’t help but smile with her - he had known that Leia would take to Rey. _If only the circumstances were better…_

  
The thought must have reached Leia; for the instant it crossed his mind, she turned her gaze back to him, her expression slightly less gentle.

 

“Ben, I know that look. You’re waiting for me to tell you to go sit in the corner, or some such. Well, you may well have broken more of the Old Laws than your father in his day, but that can wait until the Keep is safe and we have enough time and space to gather a proper Court, but until then, can you just let me be happy to see my son again?”

 

Kylo swallowed, nodding his head slowly. Then his composure broke, and he lurched forward to envelop his mother in a tight bearhug. The woman was almost engulfed by the mass of her broad son, but she returned the hug without hesitation. Out of the corner of his eye, Kylo could see Rey, still smiling to herself, back away to give them some space, but he wasn’t having any of that, especially not now after his mother had given her her blessing. Rey was family.

 

And so he reached out and scooped her silently into the hug, pressing her against him with one arm while the other remained wrapped solidly around his mother’s shoulders. For her part, Rey didn’t resist, quickly tilting her neck to tuck her head underneath Kylo’s chin and affectionately thumping him of the back with one hand, in a gesture that was both comforting and uniquely, roughly Rey.

 

 

They stayed like that for about a minute, oblivious to the growing ferocity of the surrounding winds or the clouds darkening the skies. Eventually they broke apart only when the echo of distant voices reached them, warning them that some of the Keep dwellers were on their way. As he walked back towards the Keep, Kylo walked like a man freed, even though he knew that was a chance that he would not be allowed to leave the castle before him for years. As he cautiously examined his own feelings, he realized – not without surprise – that for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, he felt safe.

 

Kylo took Rey’s hand in his again, and revelled at the feel of her cold fingers curling around his palm. _Safe._ He was home again, and they were both safe.

 

 

*

 

It had been a long time since Marsh Keep had known such a festive atmosphere. Many of the fae that dwelt in its stone halls had not felt safe enough to indulge in the customary revelry their kind was known for. But General Leia’s orders had been absolute, and even after all this time, the princess was just as talented at planning parties as she was at battles. And even with the cold wind whistling cruelly across the ramparts and the threatening world surrounding them, there was not a single inhabitant of the Keep who was not glad to finally have an excuse to let their hair down, both literally and figuratively. Massive bonfires had been lit in the courtyard and the strains of music had swiftly risen up with the smoke, harps crooning and flutes shrilling to the heartbeat thrum of goatskin drums. Dancers leapt and whirled between the flames as wooden platters of ripe fruit and thick loaves were passed from hand to gnarled hand. It wasn’t a Wild Hunt, but it was something, and there were more smiles to be seen than there had been for many a month.

 

The cause of all this unseasonal happiness, the returned Ben Solo (now Kylo Ren) by rights should have been the centre of the party. Instead, Kylo was staying in a decidedly un-royal room in the bowels of the Keep. They had once been servant’s quarters, but as there were now no servants to make use of them, they had been repurposed by the fair folk as holding rooms for weak or dying fae.

 

Kylo Ren was neither weak nor dying, but his mother had nevertheless insisted that he keep a low profile. This was mostly for his benefit, rather than a punishment, he assumed; he had never been particularly fond of parties as a child, and he hadn’t changed much in that regard. From what he had heard, however, there were one or two fae in the Keep who were less than happy with his reappearance. His mother had mentioned this in an offhand manner, but Kylo knew his mother well enough to understand what she was really saying. There had been enough bad blood between human and fae at this point that several keep-dwellers were suspicious of the sudden appearance of two wanderers, one of them claiming to be long-lost royalty and the other apparently a changeling. There had also been the not-so small matter of a trial. The fae population had dropped drastically, and some of the more formal aspects of their society had faded somewhat from common use, but by leaving his people and putting himself in the hands of a human, Kylo had, as his mother had pointed out, broken several of the most ancient laws known to the good folk. There might not be a full-blown trial as there would have been in olden times – better times – but Kylo knew he would have to face some sort of public judgement one day; if not for his own sake, then for Rey’s.

_Rey_. Kylo curled tighter on the pallet of straw and furs that served as his bed. It had been a wretch parting with her, even if he knew it was only for a little while. They had grown so close – not just in the general sense, the increasing physical intimacy between them that had grown and grown from their less-than-stellar first meeting, but in a much deeper sense, one which encompassed both of their minds, their senses and experiences, binding them so tightly together that they could even dream each other’s dreams. But Kylo knew it was for the best that Rey explore the place that was to be her home for at least a little longer without having him to slow her down or cause a disturbance among the others. She should be free to find her own place at her own pace, to experience some of the wonders of this new world, these new people. Kylo smiled to himself, in spite of it all, as he imagined Rey gazing enraptured at the towering bonfires and swirling dancers, so similar to the ones he himself had seen when he was a child. Unbidden, a memory of himself seated on Han Solo’s shoulders, hands outstretched towards the figures outlined against the roaring flames, swirled across his mind.

 

Kylo squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t want to think of his father right now. Nevertheless, he had more than enough reason to be thinking about parenthood. Leia had made the necessary noises about introducing Rey to the Keep, but all three of them had known that the real purpose of it all was giving Rey a chance to hunt for her parents. The more Kylo thought about it, as he rolled onto his back to examine the tendrils of ivy snaking their way across the ceiling, the more he felt as though everything in the past decade of his life had been influenced by parents and parenthood. Him running away from his parents, accepting Snoke as a sort of twisted surrogate, with Rey abandoned by her own parents, choosing to leave her old life to search for them here… Kylo shook his head, smiling to himself a little. He could be forgiven for being a little preoccupied under the circumstances. Besides, there was a new, not-so-little aspect of –

 

The familiar power of the bond awoke him from his thoughtful daze. Kylo all but leapt up from the unfortunate bed, just in time to see Rey round the corner. One look at her face told her all he needed to know, even if the twanging nerves and intense emotions singing through the bond between them were both clear enough indications. She hadn’t found them.

 

 

Rey gave him a brittle smile before pulling him into a hug that begun somewhere near the open doorway and ended with both of them in a heap on the bed.

 

Kylo knew well enough not to break the silence with a stupid question like “Did you find them?” Instead, he merely squeezed her tighter to him and nuzzled against the top of her head in a common gesture of comfort. “How did you find the Keep, then?”

 

“Cheerful,” Rey replied with an amused huff. “Better than Jakku, although that’s not exactly saying much.”

 

There was a silence; a fairly comfortable silence, as Kylo pondered the relative merits of continuing the conversation on one hand, or simply staying silent and holding her close on the other. They both had their attractions. In the end, as it was so often with them, it was Rey who decided.

 

“There’s a family for me here, even if my parents aren’t. I’m just as good at making new things as I am at finding old things, you know.”

 

Kylo paused to take it all in, and then smiled so broadly that he felt his face ache. Nuzzling deeper into Rey’s hair, he let his hand drop to tenderly span her belly, soft and flat still.

 

“You know I do. Did you tell my mother?”

 

“No…but she kept giving me looks.”

 

“Looks?”

 

“You know… _those_ sorts of looks. I think she knows already.”

 

Kylo rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t put it past her. Don’t be surprised if she sits you down one day and starts telling you about naming rituals.”

 

“That seems a bit much.” Despite the faux confusion, Rey didn’t even bother concealing her smile, and her hand made its way to cover Kylo’s. She opened her mouth as if to add something, but before anything could come out the action had morphed into a yawn. Before she had even shut her mouth, Kylo had already pulled a fur up and over her shoulders and settled the both of them down onto the bed. Rey, exhausted from a long day, didn’t protest in the slightest, and curled up tight into her customary sleeping position next to him.

 

The party outside only got louder as the night wore on. Entire families ate and drank and danced the foggy night away, and filled the cold air with song. But Kylo and Rey slept through it all, their hands carefully clasped over Rey’s middle, where the third member of the new family was waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> So...not sure if I need to continue this one, but I might end up adding another chapter later. Maybe something with Leia in it?  
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed.


End file.
